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A collision course for the 21st century: social inclusion and the politics of Maori self determination
Louise Humpage
RMIT University
Contact Email: louise.humpage
rmit.edu.au
As a Third Way politics concerned with combating ‘social exclusion’ has gathered interest around the world, the concept of ‘social inclusion’ has been applied to indigenous peoples living within ‘settler’ societies. Using indigenous Maori in New Zealand as an example, this paper argues that the framing of internally-colonised peoples by a social inclusion discourse is highly problematic. Claims that social inclusion for Maori can be achieved through ‘community empowerment’, ‘capacity building’ ‘partnership’ and ‘active citizenship’ have assumed that Maori ‘needs’ can be met within the universal citizenship rights of the ‘nation-state’. Yet, some calls for Maori self-determination incorporate a power-sharing or parallel development dimension that proposes strategic ‘exclusion’ from mainstream institutions and state-framed notions of citizenship that regard ‘nation’ and ‘state’ as irrevocably tied. Indeed, such proposals assert that two or more nations can exist within one political state. Hidden by overlaps in the language used to promote government’s commitment to Maori and a new ‘social development’ approach to social policy, this tension between social inclusion and Maori self-determination has not been clear in the New Zealand case. As a result, the rights that Maori hold as both indigenous peoples and partners in the Treaty of Waitangi have continued to be marginalised.
Paper
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